Oh No, the death of alt.home.repair or even Usenet!

I can relate. After years of reading usenet groups, all that seems to be
left are political and religious arguments and name calling.
I can't remember the last time there were more than one or two serious
discussions related to home repair in this group.
Several other groups I watch have been in similar decline.
It's sad, usenet was a convenient way to discuss a variety of topics
without having to visit individual web forums. It takes too much time and
hassle to visit and log in to each forum, so I tend not to visit most of
the ones that do interest me.
It was good while it lasted...
Anthony Watson
www.watsondiy.com
www.mountainsoftware.com

Many interesting topics still are discussed here. At least most
newsgroup readers allow for undesirable type postings/topics/spammers to
be blocked and filtered. You can even block cross-posted threads, too,
and delete all of that stuff before it ever shows up.

That's OK to a limited extent for existing people who are here.
But it doesn't prevent the death of the newsgroup. When someone
new looks at this and sees 50 totally OT political threads and
only one home repair one, they just move on. AHR is slowly dying
and it's just a few new jerks here that are starting one new
OT thread after another. It's their aim to destroy the group.

Someone else said that this group was like people meeting up at the
hardware store. At first they talk about the project they're working
on, and then they start talking about other things that are on their
minds. They're still at the hardware store and surrounded by a number
of hardware store type topics, but they're also human and may want to
talk about something else "interesting to them" while they're in the
hardware store.

It's not just OK - it works just fine.

If I turn off my filters, the group is so plummeted with spam and
undesirable posts I would probably just mark everything "read", but with
the filters on I see the trees instead of the forest.
Why do people talk about 'death of a newsgroup' when we still have
hundreds of posts here where people are participating because they WANT
to, and that doesn't even count all the filtered out posts I block that
other people still read and respond to?

The last week all I've seen are people talking about their projects with
one or two side political posts, but that's because I FILTER out the
stuff I'm not interested in.

No it isn't. It may be changing, but it isn't dying.

There's nothing wrong with OT threads here. If you don't want to read
them, either block them, or ignore them.

Except of course, as Art pointed out, that isn't what's happening anymore.
The overwhelming number of new threads are totally off topic, mostly
from a couple of Trumpets. It's 25 or 50 to one.
They're still at the hardware store and surrounded by a number

And what do you think a new poster, someone looking for help
regarding to home repair sees? They don't have your filters,
they see a bunch of garbage and move on, forget about posting.

Why is it that if someone said oceans cover most of the earth's
surface or the moon orbits the earth, you'd start an argument
disagreeing?

And what does someone new who shows up see? Follow it to it's
logical conclusion. You have a dwindling number.

Well, there you have it. It's not dying, it's just changing
into a cesspool for Trumpet posts.

Again, you just love to bitch, post the opposite of what everyone
else here, except the trolls of course, sees happening.

Always blame someone else if you're not happy about something, right?
NEVER, EVER go to the trouble of being a leader instead of a follower
and do something about what you're unhappy about! geez.
I didn't want to see cross-posts or spammers, so instead of complaining
about those posts showing up here, I decided to use my built-in tbird
filter and block everything I didn't want to see!
OH MY FREAKING GOSH!! I'm not an unhappy camper any more seeing stuff I
don't want to see!
It doesn't take an IT degree to figure out and use a tbird filter.
That's what it's there for.
YOU can't control what OTHER people do, BUT you CAN control what you do,
so get off of your fingers, download thunderbird, set up a server and
newsgroups, figure out how to use the filters, and stop using google
groups if you don't like to see OT posts here.
And BTW, you could stop contributing to the threads that are OT while
you're at it.
good grief, already ......

Just stating the most obvious facts. Do you deny that the overwhelming
number of new threads, the core of the pollution problem, is in fact
a couple of Trump whackos starting one new political, usually Trump
centered, post after another?
And then of course we have you, who will argue obvious facts that the
rest of us see and know to be true, just to have something to argue
about. Like that BS you started about "lying". Everyone else here
was on the same page, that you were full of shit, just arguing to argue,
as usual.

What do you suggest we do about it? How can I save AHR?

As I and others have explained to you, that doesn't fix the problem
of the newsgroup dying. People who are not regulars here don't have
filters. They have a question about home repair, see 50 threads about
politics, and move on. It doesn't take much in the way of connected
brain cells to see how the group then slowly dies. And it's not just
AHR, most newsgroups are dying, many of them aided by whacko trolls.

The village idiot rides again! You're one of the newcomers who has
only made things worse. Some of these trolls appear to have followed
you here, they arrived at the same time. And you have a real penchant
to argue over the most basic facts, like above, where you want to argue
the obvious, that it's a couple of Trump trolls creating all these
totally OT, political threads.
And for all your bitching and pontificating, I rarely see you contributing
to a real home repair question.

Then take off the filters for 5 mins and see what someone new or
someone who only comes here rarely, ie those without filters sees.
THAT is the problem. Someone who is new sees 50 BS posts and
figures it's useless. The fact that you don't see them doesn't mean
they are not there, capiche?

Again, you're the only one here who doesn't see how that doesn't
solve the problem of a newsgroup dying from pollution.

Again, more BS denial. As Art pointed out, the number of on topic,
AHR threads is dwindling, the number of BS mostly pro-Trump threads
is 20 times the number of legitimate ones.

It's no one's fault, idiot. Obviously someone who has a question,
comes here for the first time, isn't going to have filters set.
Nor are they going to spend the time to figure out which posters
are the source of the problem, set filters, etc. They just see
a big, hot BS mess and move on. THAT is why it's killing the
newsgroup.

What's stopping them is that they don't see AHR threads, they
see an overwhelming number of political threads, most of them
pro-Trump, anti liberal, BS ones. Back to the paint store analogy,
if you went into a paint store and instead of paint you saw mostly
kids toys, junk auto parts, etc, would you spend the time to figure
out what's going on or would you just leave? Good grief!

You're one, so I guess you would know.

More BS. If you blocked them, then you know that they are trolls and
whether or not they followed you from other newsgroups. I've seen
several posters claim you were driven out of some newsgroup called
"scorched.earth.politics" or similar. Sounds exactly like a place
you, BJT, the colonel, and some of the others would be right at home
in.

There's nothing you or anyone else can do about what other people post
here. At best, all you can do is set up filters.

Why are you worried about newcomers if you believe this ng is dying?
Look ... people are going to do what they do regardless of what you
shout from the rooftops isn't fair, or right, or on topic. Why waste
your energy trying to make other people do or not do what you think they
should do, or shouldn't do?
[...]

YOU can't solve that problem. If people want to post here about home
repair stuff - they will regardless of junk posts. If they don't want to
do that, they won't.
You can't control anything about this group and complaining about it all
the time doesn't change anything.

Maybe it's winter and people just don't have as many projects to talk
about? It's not about how many on topic discussions happen here, it's
about people talking about what they choose to discuss - some on topic,
and some off topic. You can't control it.
[...]

ROFL. That's a good example of why you're the village idiot and
why you just argue stupid shit for the sake of arguing. The issue with
newcomers not posting, not following because the NG is full of pro-Trump,
right wing garbage threads is obviously because without newcomers,
newsgroups die.

Why do you waster your time here bitching? Once in a blue moon you
have something relevant to say about home repair, but 99% is just
stupid BS arguing. Like the other day, trying to excuse Trump's
lying and arguing there is no difference about a president lying
about matters of national substance and someone lying to their
mother-in-law about liking the turkey they cooked. Idiot!

Yet a few posts ago, you said I should be a leader and do something
about it. Another fine example of how you blow in the wind, just
flip and flop, just to argue, deny the obvious and stir up trouble.
If people want to post here about home

So you filter all the home repair stuff and only read the off-topic
stuff?
Now you are in my filter too - thwere hasn't been a sylable, much less
a sentance of home repair messages from you since about November.

No ... I read most of the home repair stuff because I don't know how to
do most of it, and I learn from what others post. Some things I don't
really understand like all the discussions about electricity and wiring
things, but I still try to read some of those, too.
I also read some of the OT threads. Some, I respond to, many I don't
respond to.

others repair. I have asked different questions about projects I've had
around the house while I've been here, but since it's winter, I hadn't
had any projects going that I needed to ask any questions about.

YOU are many more of the regulars on alt.home.repair are the ones
responsible tor the destruction of this NG. And *YOU* are one of the
worst. The reason is that you and these others continue to post replies
to the politics and other OT crap on here. Why even bother to killfile
if you keep these posts going. If everyone here who comes here for the
RIGHT reason, filtered out the abusers, and NEVER replied to ANYTHING
they post, they would have gone away by now. Everytime you post a
followup to their garbage, YOU are FEEDING THEM.
If you go to a party and no one there talks to you, or lets you have any
food or drink, you wont go back to that party. Think about that!
I used this NG going back to the 90's. I have given up on it, because
even though I filtered all the abusers, you regulars keep feeding them
and thus flooding this group with shit. Most of the time I come here
now, the nerw posts are either OT crap, or replies to Homeownershub
crap. Most of the time I just delete all the posts and leave. In the
past month, I only read about 5 posts on here that were ON topic and
Current, (not old shit from the hub).
It's not evne worth my time to open this group anymore...
And think about this: If an outsider comes to this group to ask about an
ON topic issue, and sees the headers, they wont evne post. They will
just see a group filled with rubbish and leave.
I have nothing further to say. The current status of this group disgusts
me! This group is nothing but a pile of rubbish now, and serves no
purpose whatsoever.

On Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 8:59:57 PM UTC-4, snipped-for-privacy@alt.home.repair

+1
Exactly what I said. Of course the village idiot Muggles denies that
and says it's perfectly fine to flood a newsgroup with mostly OT
right wing political posts. I do respond to some of them, but I
rarely start a new thread. It's the overwhelming number of new,
pollution threads that newcomers will see that's a problem. It
doesn't look like AHR, it doesn't look like a serious place for
an answer on home repair, it looks like a right wing political
junk yard.

On the plumbing topic. The last original plumbing fixture in out 40+
year old house was the tub set - an old EMCO with a pull diverter -
taps on 8 incg centers - used the old 1157 integrated cartridges. The
cold tap was getting stiff - and one (not sure which one)
occaisionally dripped when shut off. I got a pair of replacements from
"home plumber" and proceded to change them. Instead of the 3/4 turn
the originals turned from full on to full off, these only turned 1/4
turn - and when I turned the water back on I could not shut off the
water. Upon investigation I found the lip around where the cold
cartridge fit had cracked - so new cartridges were NOT going to be the
answer.
The tub has a fiberglass one piece surround - NO WAY was I going in
from the front!!.
On the backside of the tub wall is a linen closet with 4 removeable
shelves, sitting on 1X4 cleats. I cut a hole between the bottom 2
shelves to expose the tap set from behind. I found the original
plumber was a bit smarter than the average bear - he had installed the
tap-set with threaded unions on both inlets as well as on the shower
riser- so removing the "carcass" wasn't going to be a problem.
I spent 4 hours checking all my local suppliers for a relacement 8" 3
handle set to use as a replacement o there were 4 holes in the
fiberglass surround that I needed to fill!! Glenbriar Home Hardware
had a set available - but not in stock - 2 week order time - $375 for
the trim set, plus the rough-in kit.
Marks Supply (the wholesaler) didn't have it in stock either - Home
Despot didn't have anything remotely close - most 8 inch sets used the
diverter on the tub spout - leaving an empty hole and a diverter that
ALWAYS leaks.
I finally found a Danze set at Canadian Tire for $165 with a twist
handle diverter in the center. -all holes would be filled, and a
"real" diverter.. It had big "unions" for the inlets, with 1/2 inch
internal pipe threads. I had already picked up 3 brass unions from
Home Despot and a couple copper pipe caps so I could turn the water
back on overnight - no way I was finishing the job that night.
I unsoldered the copper pipes from the old set and capped them,
re-using the old unions because the new ones wouldn't fit the old ones
(what else is new?)
Next afternoon I took the measurements I took from the old set before
unsoldering the pipes, and figured out where I had to cut the old
pipes to get the right length to make the new set fit without having
to unsolder / resolder the pipes inside the wall. I needed 1/2 inch
male pipe to 1/2" copper female fittings the thread into the unions
on the taps as well as th thread into the shower output - no brass
available - only the shitty new copper parts with nasty threads. I
also picked up 1/2" brass pipe nipples in various lengths and an elbow
for the spout piping.- Home Despot didn't have a 4 inch nipple - and
it ended up that was ONE of the sizes I needed. (ended up making
another trip to Glenbriar Home Hardware to get that). I got everything
all fitted up and soldered, and used teflon pipe thread sealer on all
the threaded fittings - put it all in (had to chisel a slot in both
studs for clearance for the unions on the tap) and turned on the water
- and wouldn't you know I had one leak. I pulled the short piece
between the two unions on the hot side and resoldered all the joints -
they seamed OK - and put tape on the thread instead of compound -
re-installed it and went to bed. In the morning there was a puddle on
the kitchen stove and counter - I went up to the tub, and wouldn't
you know it, the theaded joint on the hoy side has a little drip on it
-the compound hadn't done the job their either. I called into my
morning contract to let them know I was going to be late and pulled
the short section out of the hot side, taped the joint, and
reinstalled it.
I finally has a dry install and went to work.
I then got a spring-mounted 15X15 access cover from Canadian Tire and
cut it down to fit between the shelves. to close it up and finish the
job.
The fittings required to do the job added about $25 to the job.

Log in

HomeOwnersHub.com is a website for homeowners and building and maintenance pros. It is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.